Audubon, John James

The Birds of America, from Drawings made in the United States and their Territories. New York: Published by J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J.B. Chevalier, 1840-1844



7 volumes, 4to (10 x 6 1/4 in.; 254 x 158 mm). 500 very fine hand-colored lithographed plates after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly, and others, printed and colored by J.T. Bowen, numerous wood-engraved anatomical figures in text, half-titles, cumulative lists of subscribers in each volume; waterstain in lower portion of vols. 1, 3, 4, and 7, some spotting, heavier in vols. 1, 2, 5, and only occasional in vols 3, 6, 7. 20th-century half-leather or buckram over green or black cloth, spines gilt; some warping at bottom edge of two volumes, joints rubbed or cracked in vols. 6-7.

Union League Club (bookplate, stamp on title verso, presented by Benjamin P. Davis in 1887)

Ayer/Zimmer 22; Fried, Appendix A; McGill/Wood 208; Reese, American Color Plate Books 34; Sabin 2364

waterstain in lower portion of vols. 1, 3, 4, and 7, some spotting heavier in vols. 1, 2, 5, and only occasional in vols 3, 6, 7. 20th-century half-leather or buckram over green or black cloth, spines gilt; some warping at bottom edge of two volumes, joints rubbed or cracked in vols. 6-7.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

First "octavo" edition: the "best of pre-civil war american lithography" (Tyler). All of the birds from Audubon's original folio aquatints were reproduced by camera lucida for lithography by the artist's son, John Wodehouse Audubon. Seven new species are figured, and seventeen others previously described in the Ornithological Biography but not illustrated are also depicted for the first time. All of the plates are systematically rearranged and renumbered to accord with the text.